Where have I been and Where has summer gone?

25 agosto
Buon compleanno al mio amico Michele 26 Agosto!
Well, I know it is well past time to post on the blog when my friend KR has to write me an email to ask if i am still alive. Sorry, but weeks and months have been passing too quickly. Another week of being full has kept us hopping, but I have had time for a couple of nearby excursions.
1st was to the FestivaLiszt at the church Santa Lucia in Grottammare alta or the old part. Maybe those of you who are music afficianados will recognize the pianist, Yves Henry, who once upon a time was a child prodigy but now is all grown up, though still talented. He played Liszt and Chopin and Schubert and after listening to Chopin, I think that composer must have died young on purpose as he must have been very depressed. Liszt was a bit lighter and more enjoyable for me. I had a great time people watching and imagined that this musty old church built in the 6th century could have housed a group quite similar 70 years ago. There were the wealthy dowagers in the front row, the husbands dragged there by their wives, the pianists who shook their head at every perceived little mistake, the contadinos with their swollen fingers and hands like mine, etc.
Luigi Lepore, one of our fellow master's students came to visit for a night with two young Dutch girls in tow and we all tried out a nice seafood restaurant in San Benedetto del Tronto called Chichibio. Highly recommended by us all and now you can get a 10% discount if you stay with us at Nascondiglio di Bacco.
As we have been full, I have been baking bread just about every day to keep up. From "super white" to 5 cereal to whole wheat and yesterday regular white, the guests seem to really enjoy my bread and Raffaele's breakfast sweet cakes. I modify the recipes from my grandmother's Joy of Cooking cookbook from 1963.
We currently have guests from Italy, Germany and Belgium, so English is spoken here more frequently the past few days. All very nice folks who have enjoyed the beaches nearby and the mountains to the west.
Tomorrow I am off to Verona with a friend to see Aida in the Arena at Verona. Imagine the colliseum in Rome open for concerts and you get the idea. You can see the structure online or wait for my fotos in a couple of days. I have now read the story of Aida so I will be able to understand the plot and am excited to once again be able to visit this northern Italian city which I like better than Venice (but then my tastes are strange)
Bacco has been enjoying little trips to the zona Sentina beach to take baths of sand and seawater. Here, you see a very windy day with huge waves, which no longer bother Bacco and the local kite surfing experts at play. I am anxious to get him back into the mountains for another climb soon.
We are finally winding down the season and after next weekend when we are full for the last time this year, we will have lots of openings.
Divino Vino is a big wine festival in Offida and starts the 5th of September and will be something to look forward to as well as the wedding of Marta and Allesio which is coming up the same weekend. These are friends of Raffaele's who have also invited me, so I am excited about the opportunity to dress up a bit.
Our workers are about done with cutting back all our new vines to 2 branches each and tying them to the tutors and we have a little problem with butterfly eggs in our grapes in the old vineyard, a problem which requires a biological pesticide, but otherwise the vineyards are doing well. We could use a bit or a bunch of rain for the grapes and olives and hopefully, that will arrive next week.
I hope that catches everyone up and from now on, I should have more time to keep current.
dds